Pay me Dollar - Earn money by Blogging - All about making money online

Decoding the ‘Millionaire Mind'

2009-06-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

Tanned, streetwise and laidback, T Harv Eker speaks in soundbites: “Every master was once a disaster”, and “People don’t make money. People earn money.” Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, the author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth and owner of mobile business school Peak Potentials Training looks like he spends more time on the beach than in a boardroom. Eker claims he can tell anyone, within five minutes of meeting the person, how much money the person has the potential to make. “Each of us has a personal money blueprint — a limit on how much money you can have. It is the root cause of financial success or failure,” he declared in an interview late last month. “Donald Trump could lose all his money, and make it back and more, his blueprint is set to unlimited. Lottery winners tend to lose all they’ve won very quickly. Their blueprint is set to low.”

Eker is in Malaysia from today till Sunday to conduct his three-day “Millionaire Mind Intensive” seminar, in which he resets participants’ money blueprint to “high”. He will also examine five critical ways in which rich people think differently from the crowd.Toronto-born Eker discovered his own money blueprint through personal experience. With a US$2,000 (RM7,000) credit card loan, he opened “one of the first fitness stores in North America” and turned it into a chain within two-and-a-half years. He did not name the store.He sold the business in 1987 for US$1.6 million, and then lost it all. “It was serendipitous. I looked at my bank balance and it was exactly the same as it was two years ago. Now in fitness, each person has a ‘set point’ on their weight. It has to do with metabolism and the number of fat cells they have. I was looking at my financial ‘set point’,” he noted. Unwilling to accept his financial “set point”, or what he now calls “money blueprint”, Eker set about changing it.According to him, the money blueprint is ingrained in an individual through upbringing, society and parents. But it can be identified and changed. “I went to seminars and learned the ‘accelerated learning method’, which I used on myself, and things started to change. That’s how the ‘millionaire mind’ concept came about,” he explained.

His new business, Peak Potentials Training, earned a revenue of US$50 million last year. While the company runs many courses, its keystone seminar is the “Millionaire Mind Intensive”. The programme incorporates techniques from the accelerated learning method, which stresses “high impact, high frequency and ongoing support”.Eker said the “Millionaire Mind Intensive” course aims to reprogramme one’s “hardware” from “cellular memory”. But you, the “hardware”, have to be present at the seminar. “You can’t do this just by reading the book,” he said, adding that the programme has given rise to more than 200,000 success stories. When the course was held in Malaysia last year, it attracted about 5,000 people. The current seminar is sold out. To Eker, getting rich is entirely about “who you are”, not about capability or opportunity. “Financial success doesn’t come from IQ. There are people who are just too smart to be financially successful because they don’t do much.

Thinkers are not doers. If you don’t do, you don’t get,” he declared. “It doesn’t take much to not succeed. But to succeed, you must be a more determined, bigger and more courageous person.”For example, he believes the downturn is a great time to “go shopping” because the economy will eventually recover. “What goes down must come up. When? Eventually! Rich people think long term, poor people think short term.” People who fail to seize this opportunity are acting out of fear, which is natural, but it stops you from being rich, he said. “Thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to actions, which lead to results. If you take out actions, you don’t get the results.”

This article appeared on the Management page, The Edge Financial Daily, June 12, 2009

Written by Emily Tan

When investing in stocks - control your greed and fear

2009-05-05T16:51:00.000-07:00

by Ooi Kok Hwa is an investment adviser and managing partner of MRR Consulting

THE recent strong market rally caught many investors by surprise again.
Most investors, including some analysts, predicted earlier that it was just a bear market rally. They have been hoping the market will turn down again. Unfortunately, it has been moving up strong without looking back.
For investors who have not invested during the recent low in March 2009, they are getting very worried as they are not benefitting from the recent rally. They may even wonder whether they should jump in now in order not to miss the boat.
Another group of investors, who have managed to catch some stocks at cheap prices during the previous market low, are also facing the dilemma of whether to lock in their gains now or continue to hold on to their gains. Some even regretted selling their stocks too early last month.
We all know that it is very difficult, in fact impossible, to predict stock market movement. Most investment gurus will refuse to time the market.
Howard Kahn and Cary Cooper published a book titled “Stress in the Dealing Room” in 1993. According to their surveys done on 225 dealers, 73.8% of them suffered from fear of “misreading the market.” Most dealers have the same problem of acquiring and handling information.
We believe that in order to do well in stock investing, we need to know ourselves, especially in controlling our emotion on greed and fear.
Due to information overloading, our emotion is highly influenced by the news that we read. Each time we feel that the market is getting bullish and time to buy stock, the overall market will collapse the moment we enter.
On the other hand, the moment we fear that it will drop further and we have decided to cut losses, we will notice the market will recover after that. Most of the time, the prices of stocks that we sold were at the lowest of the recent fall.
In order to control our greed and fear, we need to ask ourselves whether the market has discounted the news that we have received.
For example, many analysts have been bullish lately, having the opinion that the worst may be over for the market based on the recent economic indicators which showed that the overall economy may have stopped contracting or is on its way to recovery.
Nevertheless, the recent strong market rally would have discounted this bullish news. In fact, we need to ask ourselves whether the current stock prices can be supported by the fundamentals for certain listed companies.
In our experience, in most cases, the moment we feel like buying stocks is the best time to sell them while the moment that we feel like selling them is in fact the best time to buy. We can apply this contrarian theory quite successfully in most periods.
Sometimes, if we are taking in too much contradicting information and, as a result, get confused over the market direction, we feel that the best strategy is to stay away from the market until we have a better and clearer picture of the overall market or the economic situation.
We should not be influenced by other opinions.
There are times that we need to follow our heart. Sometimes, our hearts try to warn us from taking hasty investment decisions. However, we refuse to follow our intuition but instead, choosing to get influenced by others or the information that we read and ending up making mistakes.
In conclusion, we need to maintain our concentration.
We should not be led by the market sentiments regardless whether it is on the way up or crashing down fast. We need to go back to the fundamental of economic situation and the companies’ performance and future prospects.
One way to minimise the feeling of regret is to stagger our purchase and selling. We will only know the peak when the market starts turning downwards and vice versa. Therefore, by staggering, we will have an averaging effect rather than taking a one-time hit, especially if it is at the wrong timing.

Source : The Star Business: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/5/6/business/3838362&sec=business

Why I want to be a Blogger?

2009-04-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

This article is by guest blogger Sarah Lam and moderated by Wong Sook Chin.
So, you have finally decided to be a blogger. Do you know the real reason why you want to be a blogger. For some people, it might be because they want to have an online diary to express themselves while others want to share their hobbies such as reading or playing games.
There are actually several reasons why one wants to be a blogger.
1. You want to earn money
Many people start a blog in the hope to earn money through the blog. The only problem is they might not know how they can earn money from their blog except by using Google Adsense. Money being a factor to start a blog is either a make or a break in the blogosphere. 2. You think you know something
It is obvious that when you blog, you are sharing knowledge with people. In this case, you must have known something that you can teach other people about. For example, you know how to play World of Warcraft and increase your character’s level faster than anyone else so you start a blog to share your tips.
3. Learn something
You will be surprised at how much knowledge you can learn when you start to blog. Imagine having to integrate writing and communication skills when you blog, thus helping you to improve your writing skills and communication skills at one go.
4. Inspire someone
Are you a cancer survivor? Perhaps you can start a blog and talk about your journey through recovering from cancer from surgery to chemotherapy. This will inspire other people with the same fate as you and motivate them to be strong so that they can heal just like you did.
5. The love for writing
You love to write and share it with the whole world about what you have written. You can have a blog to store all your great masterpieces, be it the next ‘Harry Potter’ series or simply poems and short stories that you have written. Mind you, someone might approach you to publish your work if you are lucky!
6. Freelancing portfolio
If you have a website dedicated to your services, that would be great but if you just want a small space on the web to promote your portfolio, a blog would be convenient and easy to set up. Whether you want to showcase your latest designs or writing samples, create a blog and spread them around to your potential clients and friends.
Have you found the real reason to have a blog?

Earth Hour - 28th Mac 2009

2009-03-25T06:37:00.000-07:00

Shut off the light on 28th Mac 2009. Yes, I will for the sake of the mother earth.

Funny things happen in Malaysia

2009-03-14T01:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-13T20:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's day to all. To all lovers, may you all enjoy your wonderful day together.

Model glad to be back in the city

2009-02-13T16:57:00.000-08:00

KYLIE Anne Chapman was born in Australia but spent her first few years in a Chinese school in Kuala Lumpur, until she was whisked back to Perth for the next few years, before recently returning to the place she had visited many times over the years.
“I have always wanted to come back ever since I moved away.
“There’s always something to do here, and I love the nightlife.
Good experience: Chapman said that modelling was challenging and had taught her a lot.
“Plus most of my family is here,” the 23-year-old model and host, who has been living in KL for about a year now, said.
Chapman, who is of Chinese and Australian parentage, is the resident host of Mad About Dodgeball (MAD) events and looks forward to the many events planned for this year.
“I enjoy doing things that help people in any way, especially kids. Dodgeball is a great sport that’s going to be a big thing and I’m happy to be a part of it,” said Kylie, who is fluent in Mandarin and speaks conversational Cantonese.
“Mandarin was my first language, I spoke it until I was about six,” the commerce graduate said.
“I was this white kid who spoke Chinese and I was a bit of an outcast.
“Then, when I moved to Australia I was this Chinese kid who didn’t speak English,” she added, laughing.
Since returning to KL, Chapman hasn’t had much trouble adjusting to life back here, except sleeping in an air-conditioned room and waking up thirsty, and enjoys the release modelling gives her.
“It’s just an escape, pretending to be someone else for a little while. It’s very relaxing,” she said of her modelling stints.
“Of course, it’s challenging as well. I’ve had to get used to rejection and it’s made me a lot stronger and thick-skinned,” she said.
What do you like about KL?
The mamak stalls – I like that I have access to food any time I want. The taxis! You can hail one down anywhere and they’ll take you wherever you want.
What do you dislike about KL?
The driving, it’s a bit aggressive for me. Sometimes it feels like if I put my indicator on, people are less likely to let me through.
What’s your favourite food?
Char kuay teow, pan mee, mangosteens, rambutans.
What do you do to relax?
I buy lots of girly DVDs, switch my brain off and just be a couch potato all day long.
Where’s your favourite place to hang out?
I love playing pool at the Social, Bangsar.

Source: The Star
http://www.thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2009/2/14/central/3264763&sec=central

Sticker on the wall, anyone?

2009-02-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

Always dreaming of having a classy designer home of your own? Stop dreaming now and leave it to us to turn your fantasies into reality; your boring wall to a playground of unlimited possibilities. Say goodbye to troublesome wallpapers and messy paints.
Now, I have a new idea to decorate my house. Guess what? Use sticker.

You can design and print your sticker on your own. I know there is one online printing company that can print very nice sticker. Visit www.printingterminal.com and http://www.printingterminal.com/index.php?p=1_17 for more product info and samples. They are very professional and experience in wall sticker design. And other than these, they also print banner, back drop, bunting, report, certificate, book, invitation card, calendar , letter head, computer form, tickets, scratch off cards, postcards, posters, presentation folders, paper and PVC stickers, booklets, business cards, calendars, catalogue, door hangers, greeting cards, PVC card, paper bags, t-shirt, uniform, flag, logo, bag, lanyard, cap, gifts and premiums, just anything....you name it, they can print for you. Worth a visit, I would recommend www.printingterminal.com for printing ideas.

More M’sians seek additional sources of income

2009-02-02T07:19:00.000-08:00

By LAALITHA HUNT

PETALING JAYA: Tay, 46, a sales manager at a local manufacturing company, has been forced to take unpaid leave for a week this month.
“My salary has been reduced by about 25% as a result of the unpaid leave and benefits such as handphone, petrol and entertainment allowances have been cut by half,” he told StarBiz.
Nirmala Paramaswaran
Tay, who declined to give his full name, said that with demand not showing any signs of recovery in the near term, he was prepared to accept further pay cuts.
“My wife recently took a course and just started a part-time business offering nail art and treatment services from home. This additional income proves useful at times like these,” he added.
Like Tay’s wife, more Malaysians are seeking additional sources of income to cope with the current economic slowdown and higher cost of living.
Nirmala Paramaswaran, 27, a team leader at an IT outsourcing company in Cyberjaya, is selling food items such as nasi lemak and sandwiches.
“Demand from my colleagues has been great and the extra income is handy as daily necessities have become more expensive,” she told StarBiz.
Nirmala, who enjoys cooking, said the venture had also been a good learning experience as she was able to improve her culinary skills based on her customers’ feedback.
Many people are also drawn to seek a second income to sustain a comfortable standard of living.
Samantha Chin, 28, a technical support executive at an insurance company who aspires to buy an apartment for her family, earns up to RM1,000 a month providing Web page design services to small and medium-scale enterprises.
Leigh Howard
“The additional income has increased my savings considerably and would enable me to make my purchase much sooner than I had hoped for. However, orders have fallen slightly in recent times,” she said.
Meanwhile, Great Eastern Life Assurance (M) Bhd senior group sales manager Reginald Yoganathan Hunt said a good part-time insurance agent with more than five years of experience can make up to RM6,000 in recurring commission.
“The insurance business can yield lucrative income even on a part-time basis, provided the agent is commited,” he said, adding that he had 16 part-time agents in his group.
Talent2 International Ltd director for South Asia Leigh Howard said the current job market in Malaysia was definitely slowing.
“Several multinational corporations have blanket hiring freezes although they would continue hiring for specialist skills,” he said, adding that the manufacturing sector appeared to be having a tough time as retrenchments loomed, but they were still looking for higher-grade skills as well.
“The current economic climate may also see wages stalling while the cost of living continues to rise,” he added.
Howard said that it was possible for employees to seek a second income but they should first check their current employer’s policies.
G. Rajasekaran
“Specific permission may be required and potential conflict of interest declared. It depends on the situation. The rule is, make sure a second job would not jeopardise your current one,” he said.
On the downside, a part-time job could be tiring and leave one with less time to spend with family and friends, Howard said.
“Also, look out for hidden expenses such as transport costs,” he added.
Malaysian Trades Union Congress secretary-general G Rajasekaran said there was no restriction on workers pursuing part-time jobs except for certain key or high-risk employment positions.
“In fact, in view of the rising cost of living, it was recently announced that government staff would be allowed to take on part-time jobs, but for a limited number of hours per day,” he said.

Source : The Star Business

Fireworks display in Dubai

2009-01-18T05:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2008-12-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

May year 2009 brings lot of great hope to you all. Have a merry christmas and new year.

Meet Miss Malaysia 2008

2008-11-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

She's the Miss Malaysia 2008 - Miss Soo Wincci. A lawyer with brain and beauty.

Golf - A game of concentration

2008-11-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

I take up golf recently. Not a bad experience. This game really test our patient and concentration. It would train our mind to be focus. Now, I'm still beginner, it may take some time to pick up the skill and swing.

Teacher by day, bar dancer by night

2008-11-08T00:07:00.000-08:00

Source: The Star
Insight: Down South
By SEAH CHIANG NEE

As the recession bites harder some find unconventional ways to get spending money while others show their meaner side.

WHAT was an ungracious act in a train has turned the spotlight on just how much stress the current financial havoc is putting on Singaporeans.

The news website, Asia One, kicked off its report of the encounter by saying: “Desperate times call for depraved measures. The financial crisis might have hurt more than just our wallets.”

It occurred last Sunday, when a train commuter refused to give up his seat to a pregnant woman even when he was asked. Instead, he blamed it on the tough life, reported The Straits Times’ news portal.

The episode was photographed by an eyewitness, who quoted him as saying, ‘Life is already full of suffering, why should I reward her (the pregnant woman) for bringing one more life into this world?’

The furore centred on his ill manners and ignored his reference to ‘suffering life’.

Some believe it should not be dismissed out of hand and that the uncivil behaviour could actually reflect his despondent mood over the economic crisis.

“Singaporeans react differently to a crisis. Not everyone can articulate his thoughts rationally under pressure,” said one writer.

The man’s allegation about stress is, however, not without basis.

The majority of Singaporeans are coping well, striving to survive these hard times, keep jobs and preserve assets. Not all will succeed.

The stronger characters see it as an opportunity for a better future or to buy cheap, but for a segment of the society morale has sagged and a bit of lethargy has set in.

A forum recently started a discussion on unscrupulous retailers fleecing customers in Singapore, despite its reputation as a shoppers’ paradise.

A woman tourist said when her daughter wanted to buy a new digital camera, the salesman demanded S$30 to have the international guarantee stamped. She stood her ground and was spared paying.

Widely-travelled ‘mybingoh’ wrote, “Every time I returned to Singapore, I found people brasher and outright peevish.”

In sporadic instances, salespersons had shown distaste for their job and did not bother to hide it from the customers.

“I hear from the man in the street they are all trying hard to cope with the escalating costs of living and the sky-high rental premiums,” one said.

He gave several other examples: a hawker adamantly demanding $4 for a pineapple, a salesgirl at a camera repair shop ignoring a customer while chatting on the phone and specialist doctors charging exorbitant fees.

A retail businessman put the main cause in one word, money. In recent boom years, rents in the central areas had been skyrocketing – by as much as 50%-60% a year.

The recession has forced retailers to keep wages low, which in turn resulted in unhappy staff and customer service.

Others disagreed and attributed it to a spoiled generation following decades of prosperity.

“In certain jobs, we don’t have a good work culture, unlike Thailand,” one food centre operator said, explaining why he had to rely on China workers.

In a recession, service standards should in fact improve because workers generally need to work harder to keep their jobs, he contended.

Within the next 12-18 months, jobs will remain the biggest worry for Singaporeans.

Thousands of fresh graduates will come out of universities at home and abroad to start hunting for work at a critical time. They will be joined by youths from Asia’s job-hungry countries.

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong last week warned people to expect deterioration over the next few months, with more Singaporeans losing their jobs.

“There will be higher retrenchment,” he said. So far, unemployment has stayed at 2.2%, although 2,000 more workers were retrenched in the recent quarter.

The more pessimistic analysts talk of a job tsunami, with decline across Singapore’s entire economy, including manufacturing, shipping, finance, tourism, retailing and property.

Yuppies seem to be doing reasonably well – so far. This breed is not good at being thrifty, compared with the older generation. Generally, they do not have a sense of urgency to save, so some of them are using unconventional ways to make spending money.

One ‘university’ girl offered to sell her soiled underwear while another – a 17-year-old – offered her virginity to the highest bidder.

The tabloid New Paper just ran a story about engineers, teachers and other professionals working as bar dancers at night-clubs, partly for fun but mostly for the extra dollars.

The newspaper exclaimed in a headline, “Is that my housing agent dancing on the bar?”

This market meltdown has struck the government and the wealthy just as badly.

The billionaires and wealthy property developers have seen their fortunes decimated, at least on paper, by as much as 60% since early this year.

“Some of these poor souls are down to their last one or two hundred million dollars,” joked a remisier.

In worst shape are Singapore’s state reserves, once estimated to be about US$330bil, much of it invested at home and overseas. Today values in the tens of billions are believed to have been erased.

In Singapore more than elsewhere, if the wealthy suffer so will the poor. That could mean less investment and employment as well as a drop in tax revenue for public services.

In fact, the government here is facing one of its toughest political tests since independence. It has to strike a fine balance between giving big business a free hand to cut costs to stay healthy and placating voters who may want just the opposite.

On the ground, these common folks want more spending by the corporations so they can have a better life.

Malaysians reducing purchases, Americans and Japanese too

2008-10-31T04:35:00.000-07:00

by YEOW POOI LING

KUALA LUMPUR: More than half of Malaysians have reduced “impulse” purchases and postponed major life decisions, reports StarBiz's Yeow Pooi Ling.

The AP meanwhile reported from Washington that scared and out of money, Americans stopped buying everything from cars to corn flakes in the July-September quarter, ratcheting back spending by the largest amount in 28 years and jolting the national economy into what could be the most painful recession in decades.

Yeow Pooi Ling reports that Malaysians are delaying getting married, having children, moving house, changing jobs or furthering their education due to the current downbeat economic conditions, according to a recent poll by Synovate Research.

Nevertheless, 45% were optimistic that the weak economy would improve soon while only 22% thought the economy was going downhill and that the domestic economy would worsen before it recovers.

Synovate’s survey, conducted two months ago, reviewed the spending habits and perceptions of Malaysians on the economy over six months to August. The survey was also done in Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, the US, France, Russia, Turkey and South Africa.

Synovate Malaysia managing director Steve Murphy said Malaysians had a more positive outlook on the economy compared to developed countries.

For example, almost two-thirds of Americans (63%), Japanese (63%) and French (64%) felt their economy would get worse before rebounding, he said after a media briefing yesterday.

“Malaysians’ optimism is merited as the banking system is regulated,” Murphy said.

Nonetheless, given the barrage of negative news over the last two months, more Malaysians could feel more pessimistic by now, he added.

In the six months to August, 36% of Malaysians were saving less, 25% investing less and generally reducing their spending on basic necessities and especially luxury items.

This was attributed to the lower disposable income given that food and energy prices had increased while salary saw little difference, Murphy said.

Almost half the respondents were earning almost the same as before, 26% were taking home less salary while 15% saw a pay rise during the six-month period.

Top of the list of items that Malaysians were willing to give up were holidays and leisure travel (18%), branded items (13%), eating out (12%) and purchases of big-ticket items (12%) like houses and cars.

Murphy said instead of getting a new car, the average Malaysian was more likely to consider a second-hand, or a lower range, vehicle.

Some 31% of Malaysians deemed to be affluent, i.e, those with monthly income of RM4,000 and above, indicated they had the intention to buy a new car in the next 12 months.

Affluent Malaysians have continued to invest this year with investment in unit trusts and mutual funds increasing to 40% in first half of the year from 29% a year ago.

Investments in residential and commercial property investment rose to 29% from 21% in the same period.

Murphy said the affluent believed that they would be cushioned during tough times.

“But this is a small segment of society. The majority of people would tighten their belts,” he added.

Synovate surveyed 1,000 respondents from urban and rural areas, as well as major cities in the country.

Meanwhile, Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua) managing director Datuk Syed Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said the automaker had yet to feel the change in consumer sentiment, as sales numbers for its economical vehicles remained strong for September and October.

“October hasn’t ended yet but about 15,000 (units) have been booked so far,” he told StarBiz in a telephone interview.

Mutiara Goodyear Development Bhd, which develops mostly mid-range properties, had seen a take-up rate of over 70% for its Prima Avenue commercial project in Petaling Jaya since the launch in mid-August, said chief executive officer Kee Cheng Teik.

Prima Avenue comprises two towers of office suites and retail lots selling at RM170,000 onwards with a total gross development value of RM120mil.

Buyers were mainly property investors and young entrepreneurs starting their business, he said.

But health food company Hai-O Enterprise Bhd is seeing weaker demand from its Chinese customers.

Financial controller Hew Von Kin said Chinese medicated halls, which got their supplies from Hai-O, were stocking less in anticipation of slower demand.

Source : http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/10/31/business/2419397&sec=business

Free Self Help Articles

2008-10-01T08:12:00.000-07:00

SuccessAndLife.com -- Free Self Help Articles And
Personal Success Techniques
The self help site that provides free access of personal growth
content and success techniques with the latest daily update.

How to Earn More and Work Less

2008-08-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

Source from: Scott Allen
http://entrepreneurs.about.com/

Do you want to continue working 50, 70, 100 hours a week the rest of your life?
Good! Neither do I.
Do you want to be able to take time off whenever you want to, without worrying about what's going to happen to your business?
So do I!
There's a saying in the corporate world: "Don't make yourself irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted." As an entrepreneur, this is still true in its own way. Let's think of "being promoted" as earning more and working less. You can raise your prices, but until you can remove yourself from being directly involved in doing the work that generates the income, there's always going to be a limit to how much you can earn, and it can only increase very slowly.
Passive income, on the other hand, is income that does not require your direct involvement. Some kinds of passive income you may be familiar with include owning rental property, royalties on an invention or creative work, and network marketing. If you want to earn more, work less, and have a decent retirement, you're going to have to start creating income streams that do not require your direct involvement. Whether you're just starting your business, or you've been running it a while, the sooner you start thinking about how you are going to shift your business model to create more passive income, the sooner you can achieve personal and financial freedom.
Let's look at two basic types of passive income, and a third type of income that, while technically not passive, is a key strategy for earning more and working less.
Residual Income
Residual income is revenue that occurs over time from work done one time. Some examples include:
· An insurance agent who gets commission every year when a customer renews his policy
· A network marketing or direct sales rep's income from her direct customers when they reorder product every month
· An aerobics instructor who produces a video and sells it at the gyms where she teaches
· A marketing consultant who creates a workbook and sells it in e-book format on the Internet
· A photographer who makes his photos available through a stock photography clearinghouse and gets paid a royalty whenever someone buys one of his images
· A restaurant or retail owner who has grown to the point of hiring a trustworthy manager
As you can see, there are many different ways to generate residual income across a wide variety of businesses. It may be recurring income from the same customers, or the sales of a product to new customers. It may require no personal involvement whatsoever, such as an e-book sold on a web site, or it may require some personal interaction, such as the insurance agent calling the customer to remind them about their renewal and ask them if they want to change any of their coverage. Often, it's something that you can delegate to an assistant.
Note that this is different from merely recurring income. Recurring income may still require your involvement to earn the income, e.g., a coach or consultant on a monthly retainer, or a caterer who delivers lunch every Monday to the local school board. While this "active recurring income" offers welcome stability, it also tends to tie you down, and you still have limits on your earning capacity based on your own personal production capacity.
Leveraged Income
Leveraged income leverages the work of other people to create income for you. Some examples of leveraged income include:
· An e-book author selling her e-book through affiliates who promote the product
· A network marketer who builds a downline and receives commissions on the sales made by people in his downline
· A general contractor who makes a profit margin on the work done by sub-contractors
· Franchising your business model to other entrepreneurs (the ultimate leveraged income)
Again, there are many different models in many different businesses. The key is that you are making money off of other people's labor, rather than primarily your own. Note that leveraged income may or may not also be residual income. When you combine them, that's even better.
Active Leveraged Income
This is a term I use to describe income that requires your direct participation, but that you can make more money by having more people involved. This generally involves a one-time event, such as:
· A seminar or class
· A conference or convention
· Concerts and dance recitals
· Raves and other parties
Although these require your direct participation, your earning potential is much higher than if someone were just paying you a direct hourly rate. Fill a room with 1,000 people paying $50 each and you can cover your facility cost, promotional cost, and staffing fees and still have a nice chunk of change left over.
Applying It
Now is the time to think about how to apply this in your business. Can you create a product that people will buy over and over again? Can you engage others to sell your product? How could you make money off the work of others?
The sooner you answer these questions, the sooner you'll have financial and personal freedom.

Cult of Warren Buffett

2008-08-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

Source from:

http://biz.thestar.com.my/bizweek/

Robert P. Miles was in Malaysia for the first time to preach about the investment principles practised by the world’s richest man.
HAVING made his fortune largely through the stock market, Warren Buffet is widely regarded as the world’s greatest investor. Today, he is also the world’s richest man, with a net worth of more than US$62bil, according to Forbes magazine’s 2008 rankings.
Buffett’s success has garnered him a cult-like following among investment professionals and amateurs alike.
This is obvious at his shareholders’ meetings held each year on the first Saturday of May in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States.
Also, many books about Buffett have gone on to become international best-sellers.
“Besides his wealth and success, Buffett is also well known for his philanthropic work. He has taught his shareholders to not just focus on making wealth, but also on distributing it back to the world to help the needy,” says Robert P Miles.
Miles is among those who have written about Buffett. To date, Miles has three titles — 101 reasons to own the world’s greatest investment: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway; The Warren Buffett CEO: Secret from the Berkshire Hathaway managers; and Warren Buffett wealth: Principles and practical methods used by the world’s greatest investor.
Tagged as a Warren Buffett expert, Miles has become a fixture on the international lecture circuit. He has spoken and conducted workshops in five continents, that is, Asia, Australia, North America, Europe and Africa.
Miles was in Malaysia for the first time last Tuesday to conduct a half-day seminar organised by the Malaysian Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
BizWeek catches up with him to gain an insight into what he normally teaches and his opinions about Buffett.
BizWeek: You have travelled to many places conducting seminars. Last Tuesday was your first time doing it in Malaysia. Why was Malaysia never on your list before that?
Miles: Well, I never got invited to come to Malaysia to conduct seminars before this. My coming this time was under the invitation of a friend after I completed my tour of four Asian countries, namely, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.
What do you teach at your seminars?
I share my observations on Buffett, and my seminars focus on teaching people about his investment and management philosophies. I think he is a genius at both investing and managing.
Buffett is a living proof that it is indeed possible to become extraordinarily wealthy through an honourable way.
He has created wealth by owning businesses through the stock market. And he manages 220,000 employees at his enterprises, with only 19 stationed at his headquarters.
So, Buffett is an interesting case study, not only from the investment standpoint, but also from the management standpoint.
Who are your target audience?
Anyone who is interested in the stock market and in learning how Buffett manages his enterprises. They could range from professionals to individual investors and business students, among others.
The response around the world to the message of Buffett has been good because people are curious about him. They want to study somebody who is the best at investing and the best at managing.
What is your relationship with Buffett?
I am simply, first, a shareholder of his company, Berkshire Hathaway. I am not a spokesperson for the company, though. Neither am I on its payroll nor had Buffett instructed me to conduct seminars.
Secondly, I am an author of three books about Buffett. On my website, you will notice the focus is more on Buffett because it is really all about him. It is not about Robert Miles and how I invest. So, I try not to confuse the two. I am just an observer, a writer and speaker.
How did you develop the credibility you enjoy today of being a Warren Buffett expert?
I think credibility is earned, and people can tell whether or not you know your stuff.
I wrote my first book — 101 reasons to own Berkshire Hathaway – without any intention of publishing it. I started writing the contents of the book as a daily blog posting on fool.com over a period of 101 days.
When I finished, many people from all over the world wanted a compilation of my postings in a book. So, I self-published the book because I never thought publishers would be that interested in what I had written.
My book captured the attention of many soon after hitting the bookshelves because people found out that Buffett actually liked it. A publisher then picked up my book and published it in hardcover and paperback for foreign editions.
Following the success of the first book, I began to work on two other books on my own initiative because I was really passionate about Buffett’s philosophies.
How did you become familiar with the investment and management philosophies of Buffett?
Just by reading his letters, which are available free on his website. There are over 20 years of his letters to his shareholders (whom he regards as his partners) that pretty much explain his methods. Buffett writes to them as if they had been away from the business for a year.
How long have you been studying about Buffett?
For more than 10 years, since I became a shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway in 1995.
When did you begin to develop an interest in him?
When I began to ask myself the questions – who is the best at investing, what can I learn from him and is he available to manage money for me – back in the mid-1990s.
I found the answer in Buffett.
So, I began to invest in Berkshire Hathaway and started attending its annual shareholders’ meetings.
I got to learn so many new things from Buffett that I had never heard of from anyone else, such as: Wall Street will sell you anything that you want to buy; it is the legal pickpocket of the average investor; and it is the only place where people will go there in a Rolls Royce to get advice from people who have gone there by the subway. And I was so impressed.
Have you applied Buffett’s theories on yourself?
Yes, my income is mainly from my personal investments, not so much from my writing or speaking fees. I think one will lose his credibility if he does not make money by following the advice that he is preaching about.
Have you ever thought of just focusing on being a successful investor like Buffett?
My motivation is to share what I have discovered so that people can make up their own mind.
My job enables me to share my passion about Buffett, and by travelling, I get to experience other cultures and meet different people. I think you can learn more about yourself when you are given a comparison, not by being surrounded by people who are like yourself.
In a nutshell, what is Buffett’s way of investing?
It is figuring out what an investment is worth – what is its value – and attempting to buy it cheap. Most people confuse price with value, thinking if the stock price is US$25, then the stock must be worth US$25.
Buffett does not look at the price. He calculates the value, which is basically determined by earnings of an investment, and then figures out the best price to pay for the stock.
Then, he patiently waits for the market to offer him a much attractive price for his holdings.
Buffett strongly suggests that one should not be a stock trader if one has no interest in studying accounting and valuing a business, and does not understand market prices.
That person, according to Buffett, will be better off just buying a low-cost, low-tax, index fund, and dollar-cost average into it over his or her working life to enjoy reasonable returns.
What are the principles behind Buffett’s way of investing?
Buffett’s investing style is influenced by the methods that had been laid out by his college professor Benjamin Graham in a book called The Intelligent Investor. He learnt three important points from the book, which have helped him throughout his investing life. We can also apply them:
Firstly, we need to look at a stock as not just a list on the newspaper. It represents a share of a business. If we think that way, we will have an owner-mentality, rather than a trader-mentality. Then, we will think more about the value of the business, and not the price of it.
Secondly, we have to think that in the stock market, we have a virtual partner, whom Graham called Mr Market.
Every time the stock market opens, Mr Market is either manic or depressed. When he is manic, he wants you to buy his share of the business for twice as much to what you think the business is worth, so you should sell instead.
When he is depressed, he wants to sell you his share of the business for half of what it worth, so you should buy instead. What most people do wrong is they treat Mr Market as their master and follow his mood. But Buffett uses Mr Market as his servant, and does the opposite of what Mr Market wants.
Thirdly, we need a margin of safety, which is the difference between the value and price of an investment. The lower the price of a stock from your valuation, the more margin of safety you have.
Therefore, Buffett likes declining markets because he can get more margin of safety from such markets. In bull markets, however, Buffett will wait patiently on the sidelines.
How can one learn to be an intelligent investor like Buffett?
The stock market is a place where emotions run high as shares are being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Emotions come into play all the time because people want to win. So they either push up or push down the prices of shares. Many therefore confuse price with value, and could not make the best investment decision.
An intelligent investor is one who is rational. Buffett is a very rational investor because he has learnt to master his emotions.

Make some friends, earn some money via Frenszone

2008-04-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Do you know...
1) Myspace makes almost $25 million a year
2) Friendster makes $20 million
3) Facebook makes over $8 million a MONTH from advertising alone

WE, the users do not get any of this money, even though WE are the ones making the pages, writing the blogs and uploading the photos!
Now, FrensZone is the latest social networking site that actually PAYS its members just to use it!
The site has features like Frienster and Facebook, but the best is, the more you use it, the more you get PAID! Many members have already cash-in!
To join FrensZone & get paid, click on the link, http://www.frenszone.com/?idAff=3451
See my earnings below for two days after I signed up, if you still feel skeptic.

So why wait? Click to sign up at
http://www.frenszone.com/?idAff=3451
You too can earn that extra money.

How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20

2008-04-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

By Forbes.com

While their peers were out making trouble, these young achievers were making bank.
Forever in search of the secrets to entrepreneurial success, we peeked into the inspirational lives of five whiz kids who built million-dollar enterprises before the age of 20.
They partnered with friends, siblings and mentors, or did the work on their own. Three are from the U.S., two from the U.K. All started at age 15 or younger--and one before he broke double digits.
Their common thread: preternatural business sense and demon drive to turn ideas into reality.
In Pictures: Businesses Of The (Really) Young And Successful
Five Teen Millionaire Entrepreneurs: Fraser Doherty, Ashley Qualls, Catherine Cook, Cameron Johnson, Adam Hildreth

In Pictures: Eight Ways To Make Money Online
While four of the five were making a mint on the Internet, Fraser Doherty was doing things the old-fashioned way. In 2002, at the age of 14, Doherty started making jams from his grandmother's recipes in his parents' kitchen in Edinburgh, Scotland. Neighbors and church friends loved them. As word spread, Doherty started receiving orders faster than he could produce them at home, so he rented time at a 200-person food-processing factory several days a month.
Go With The Flow
By age 16, Doherty left school (with his parents' blessing) to work on his jams full time. In early 2007, Waitrose, a high-end supermarket in the U.K., approached Doherty, hoping to sell his Superjam products in their stores. Within months there were Superjam jars on the shelves of 184 Waitrose stores, hoisting Doherty and his business to new heights.
Doherty borrowed 5,000 pounds (about $9,000) from a bank to cover general expenses and more factory time to produce three flavors: Blueberry & Blackcurrant, Rhubarb & Ginger and Cranberry & Raspberry. Tesco (other-otc: TSCDY - news - people ) followed, adding Doherty's products to 300 stores across the U.K. In March, Superjam will launch at Tesco in Ireland.
Last year Superjam hit $750,000 in sales and is on track to double that in 2008 (about 50,000 jars a month). Based on a reasonable valuation multiple of one times revenue--jelly-maker J.M. Smucker (nyse: SJM - news - people ) trades at 1.2 times sales--Doherty's 100% stake is worth in the neighborhood of $1 million to $2 million.
Not bad for a 19-year-old. Doherty's recommendation to other young entrepreneurs: "Have an attitude of adventure, and enjoy the journey."
Double Down
Cameron Johnson truly took that perspective to heart, parlaying one hit into the next. Back in 1994, when he was just 9, Johnson launched his first business out of his home in Virginia, making invitations for his parents' holiday party. By the seasoned age of 11, Johnson had saved up several thousand dollars selling greeting cards. He called his company Cheers and Tears.
But the little guy didn't stop there. At age 12, Johnson offered his younger sister $100 for her collection of 30 Ty Beanie Babies, all the rage at that time. The young entrepreneur quickly earned 10 times that amount by selling the dolls on eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ). Smelling potential, he contacted Ty and began purchasing the dolls at wholesale with the aim of selling them on eBay and on his Cheers and Tears Web site.
In less than a year, Johnson banked $50,000--seed money for his next venture, My EZ Mail, a service that forwarded e-mails to a particular account without revealing the recipient's personal information. He hired a programmer to flesh out his idea, and within two years My EZ Mail was generating up to $3,000 per month in advertising revenue.
Be Fearless
Johnson still wasn't done. In 1997, he joined forces with two other teen entrepreneurs, Aaron Greenspan and Tom Kho, to create an online advertising company called Surfingprizes.com, which provided scrolling advertisements across the top of users' Web browsers. Those who downloaded the software received 20 cents per hour (a tiny fraction of the value to the advertiser) for the inconvenience of having ads splay across their computer screens.
The boys employed a classic pyramid strategy to spread the service. Users who managed to refer Surfingprizes.com to a new customer would nab 10% of that new person's hourly revenue.
But Johnson and company didn't just sell software--they wanted a piece of that juicy ad revenue too. Their solution: partnering with companies such as DoubleClick, L90 and Advertising.com that could sell the ads for them. Under the agreements, the middlemen would collect 30% of any ad revenue sold, while the three boys split the remaining 70%, out of which they paid those referral fees.
"I was 15 years old and receiving checks between $300,000 and $400,000 per month," says Johnson. At 19, he sold the company name and software (but not the customer database) to an undisclosed buyer. Says Johnson, "Before my high school graduation, my combined assets were worth more than $1 million."
Now just 23, and with other ventures under his belt, Johnson spends his time giving speeches and promoting a new book. "Put yourself out there," he advises. "Don't be afraid of rejection. Don't be afraid to ask anything."
Stick To A Vision
At 15, Catherine Cook and her brother Dave, 17, were flipping through their high school yearbook and came up with the idea to develop a free interactive version online. In 2005, the two convinced their older brother Geoff, a budding Web entrepreneur himself, to invest $250,000 and his time to help them launch MyYearbook.com, a social-networking site based in Skillman, N.J.
Soon after, the Cooks merged with Zenhex.com, an ad-supported site where users post a variety of homemade quizzes, more than doubling the number of eyeballs taking in their site. But when they tried to expand even further, they hit some snags. Potential investors wanted to move the company's headquarters to New York (the Cooks wanted to stay put). They also wanted to have ads appear on users' personal profile pages (the Cooks didn't).
Good thing the Cooks stuck to their vision. By 2006, MyYearbook had raised $4.1 million from the likes of U.S. Venture Partners and First Round Capital. Since then, the site has attracted such advertisers as Neutrogena, Disney (nyse: DIS - news - people ) and ABC; has grown to 3 million members worldwide; and rakes in annual sales in the "seven figures," says Catherine.
How to compete in an industry dominated by MySpace and Facebook? Mine a niche. "[Our site is] specifically for high school students, and we really listen to the suggestions of our members," says Catherine.
While the Cooks decline to discuss the value of their stake in the business, one MyYearbook investor (who agreed to speak only if unidentified) claims the Cooks' chunk is worth "well over $1 million."
Seven figures is real money to anyone, let alone a teenager. Yet despite their heady success, all of these young world-beaters seem to remain--refreshingly--kids at heart. "I'm not driving around in fancy cars," says Doherty. "I'm in it totally for the adventure."
Profits and perspective: Sounds like a recipe for even greater success in the decades to come

A blog home business...?

2008-02-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

Earning Money From Your Blog?
Blog marketing is something that all blog owners do. They market their blog so that they can get readers, and make a profit from their blogs.
Marketing their blog means to get it out there so that others that are interested in it can find it and read it. It is also a great way to sell things by using affiliate links and programs.
Blog marketing can very well become a home business if that is something that you are interested in.
A blog home business...?

Having a home business by blog marketing would definitely entail that you have more than one blog.If this is something that you are considering, you will want to make a list of markets that your blogs can cover. You will find that your blogs will do best when you only have one market per blog.For example, if you have a blog about cats, you will not want to include anything on the blog about kitchen appliances. This is because the readers that read your blog and visit your blog to learn more about cats and what you have to say about them will not be interested in learning anything about kitchen appliances. Once you have overcome the relevancy issue, you will be ok.You can however, have a blog about pets, and then blog about all of the many pets that you want to include.
More about this at:
http://www.squidoo.com/blog-income

Happy Valentine's day

2008-02-14T06:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day...!!To all.....

Be creative in marketing

2008-02-11T03:18:00.000-08:00

Can we say that, creativity can market more sales?

Happy Chinese New Year

2008-02-03T01:22:00.000-08:00

Wishing you happiness, good fortune and prosperity in the year 2008!!

Some blog tips

2008-01-25T04:22:00.000-08:00

Source: Redboxstudio

Here are some blog-sticky tips according to Patrick Schaber.
Give readers something new. They should come away with a pleasure of having learnt something from your blog. Give them this pleasure! (This also means bloggers need to work harder to bring in quality content - content which needs to fulfill the aims of your blog.)
Post frequently. In my opinion, you should post frequently if you have good posts or information to share. If none, you can always blog about what you did and what you learnt because your readers can learn through what you learnt!
Maintain focus. This is a good one. It’s easy to stray from the topic of your blog because let’s face it, things get boring after a while. But do not give in to the temptation of wanting to write about other things. For instance, Krista’s soup blog focuses on Chinese soups only. Not Western soups. She says it’s tempting sometimes to talk about other types of soups but it’s also going to be detrimental to her blog readers.
Add visual interest. This is another good point. A lot of blog readers love photos and nothing speaks louder or better than photos. That’s why we use photos when we want to bring a point across. It’s best to make a photo or visual image relevant too.